The Cockerel

BOLTON SCHOOL BOYS’ DIVISION NEWSLETTER

ISSUE 50 - JANUARY 2025

Chapter 1 Christmas Festival spreads Festive Joy

Christmas Festival spreads Festive Joy

As usual, the Boys’ Division of Bolton School did not disappoint at this year's Christmas Festival of Carols. Opening with an invitation to worship from the Head of Boys’ Division, Mr. Nic Ford, the choir began the event with a stunning version of ‘Once in Royal David’s City'.

Through a spectacular range of carols, the choirs performed beautiful renditions of beloved hymns, including ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!’, ‘Joy to the World!’ and ‘Shine Jesus Shine’. With readings from several pupils, the congregation was also delighted to welcome Reverend Dr. Peter Gaskell, who reﬂected on the meaning of Christmas and what it means to each of us.

After the ﬁnal prayer, the choir closed with ‘O Come, all ye Faithful!’ and Mr. Ford announced the retiring collection was this year being held in support of Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary, Emmaus and Fort Alice.

You can watch the Christmas Festival here.

Christmas Can Collection for Urban Outreach

The whole of the Bolton School Foundation came together to support local charity Urban Outreach with their Christmas Hampers during the festive season. Families from across Bolton School, from the Nursery to the Sixth Form, generously donated cans of non-alcoholic drinks to help ﬁll the hampers, which are given to families and individuals who are struggling and contain everything needed to put on a spread at Christmas.

Bolton School has been a supporter of Urban Outreach’s hampers for many years. This time, the challenge was to collect 6,800 cans and children, staﬀ and their families from across the Foundation came together to donate, with more contributions coming in from the School’s alumni community as well.

A week before the deadline, only half the cans needed had been brought into school. However, a ﬁnal push allowed the School not only to meet, but to exceed their target!

A group of Year 12 students in Girls’ Division ran a sweet stall, raising a further £292.16, which was donated to Urban Outreach to fund other missing items.

Twelve Girls’ Division students, representing the most successful forms in terms of cans collected, went to the Urban Outreach warehouse before the end of term to help pack 1,200 hampers with non-perishables. Staﬀ from the Foundation also helped deliver the hampers to families in need on 23 December.

Chapter 3 Bolton School announces

Bolton School announces new Catering Partnership

Bolton School is pleased to announce its intention to embark upon an exciting new partnership with caterers Thomas Franks, to provide all of the School's catering services from the start of the Summer Term onwards.

The planned partnership would mark a signiﬁcant change in the School's catering provision, and has been initiated as part of its ongoing commitment to ensuring that the education and experience our pupils enjoy at Bolton School remains of the

highest quality, whilst oﬀering exceptional value-for-money for parents.

Thomas Franks' twenty years' experience as a family-owned, market-leading caterer within the independent school sector, and reputation for providing nutritious food of the highest standard, make it the ideal partner to deliver upon this commitment. The company's founding, enduring ethos is the provision of fresh, locally-sourced food, created by fully-trained staﬀ. This ongoing pledge to delivering food of the highest quality alongside maintaining its staﬀ wellbeing has achieved much recognition, most recently through the company's inclusion in The Sunday Times' Best Places to Work list, its Gold Investors in People accreditation and its receipt of a Catey Award for Health and Nutrition.

The School's in-house catering team have provided generations of pupils and staﬀ with their lunches and refreshments, and would continue to play a pivotal role in the provision of catering at the School once the partnership began. Following a period of consultation, colleagues in the catering team would have their employment transferred to Thomas Franks in accordance with

TUPE regulations; from the start of the Summer Term, they would then work as one team, alongside Thomas Franks colleagues, to deliver the daily catering requirements of each of the three Divisions of the School.

Blain Shepherd, UK Managing Director at Thomas Franks, commented: "We are thrilled with our planned partnership with Bolton School, and their intention that we should act as their new caterers. This proposed partnership brings a sense of excitement to everyone here at Thomas Franks and we are looking forward to hopefully providing the catering services at the School from the start of the Summer Term. We're conﬁdent that Thomas Franks' focus on quality and exceptional service will align perfectly with the School's objectives for its catering provision, and we are

wholeheartedly committed to delivering a dining experience for pupils, staﬀ and visitors that not only meets, but exceeds, their expectations. We can't wait to embark on this new venture and to being part of the Bolton School community."

During the remainder of the Spring Term, colleagues from the School's catering team will work alongside Thomas Franks' expert staﬀ to prepare for the proposed launch of the partnership after Easter. Closer to then, parents will receive further information about Thomas Franks' credentials and commitments, and how they will accommodate the speciﬁc dietary requirements and allergies within the School community.

Philip Britton, MBE, Head of Foundation at Bolton School, concluded: "I am delighted that the School has been able to work with Thomas Franks, to develop this planned partnership and thus initiate this next exciting stage in its catering provision. Thomas Franks’ commitment to nutrition and its culinary expertise would ensure that pupils and staff enjoy tasty, healthy meals each lunchtime, that cater to the diverse tastes and dietary requirements of our School community. Our shared commitment to staff training, sustainability and using local suppliers, and Thomas Franks' long-standing experience in the independent school sector, means they would be the ideal partner to deliver the School's catering provision, and I am sure this proposed new venture would bring many benefits to the School and its local community.

Chapter 4

Boys compete in Year 7 & 8 Gymnastics Finals

Pupils at Bolton School Boys’ Division continued a tradition stretching back over the past century with the annual Gymnastics Finals. Last term, the whole of Year 7 and Year 8 took part in the initial rounds of the competition: for Year 7, a series of ﬂoor movements and balances, and for older boys in Year 8, the vault. This culminated in two thrilling and closelymatched Gymnastics Finals in January.

First the Year 7s competed in front of an audience of their peers, showing off an impressive series of routines that were completed at a very high standard. All five finalists were commended by the judges, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Foy, after completing their performances, and prizes were awarded by Head of Boys’ Division Mr. Nic Ford.

The Gold and Silver medals were won by a pair of talented twins: first place and the Gymnastics Cup went to Kayden Moyo, and second place to Jaylen Moyo. Harry Kay earned third place and the Bronze medal, while Jude Tatin and Jacob Cottrell received finalists’ certificates to acknowledge their achievement of being in the top five across the year group.

A couple of weeks later, it was the turn of the Year 8s. The ﬁve best gymnasts across the whole year group competed in the vaults, once again in front of their whole year group. They impressed the judges and their audience with their performance of the through vault, long ﬂy vault, rotational vault and double box vault. After the judges congratulated all of the boys who took part

on the high standard of gymnastics on display, Mr. Ford again handed out the prizes.

First place went to Bear Roberts, with Abu-Huraira Ali taking second and Abdulmateen Ogunnusi taking third. Eisa Ali and Noah Adams also received ﬁnalists’ certiﬁcates acknowledging their achievement of making it into the Final.

Mr. Ford congratulated all of the ﬁnalists on both occasions and commended them for the hard work that went into their achievement of making it to the Final.

Chapter 5 Wonderful Winter Water Polo

From inspiring coaching opportunities in school to involvement in regional and international competitions, the end of the Autumn Term continued to be an exciting time for water polo players at all levels.

Year 12 student Amelia, who is captain of the Girls’ Division Under 18 team, was part of the Junior Women’s Great Britain team that won gold at the EU Nations Cup in Czechia at the end of November.

The Prince of Wales Cup is a tournament for the 60 best male and female water polo players in the country born in 2011.

Bolton School players Mateo Sprott (Year 9), Ethan Kennair (Year 8), Reuben Wardle (Year 9), Olivia (Year 9), Beau (Year 8), Taliah (Year 8), Rosalind (Year 8), Florence (Year 9) and Aimee (Year 9) all earned a place in this prestigious competition. Lucas Bishop (Year 10), Amelia and recent leaver Josh Dickens (Class of 2024) each coached one of the teams involved. Bolton School Aquatics Coach Mr. McGinty was heavily involved in the organisation of this fantastic event.

At the North West

Interregional Championships, Olivia and Taliah were also part of the Under 14s team that won the Girls’ competition, while Ethan and Mateo were on the winning Boys’ Under 14s team.

At the Under 16 Talent Games, Boys’ Division Year 10 pupils Lucas Bishop and Jimmy Elliott and Girls’ Division Year 11 pupils Sonal, Zara and Lillia competed for the North West Talent Centre sides.

Recent leavers Harriet Dickens and Lucy Blenkinship (both Class of 2024) helped England’s Senior Women’s team to a fourth-place finish in the Water Polo World Cup (Division 2). In the autumn term, Harriet returned to school to deliver a coaching masterclass to the Under 12/Under 13 squads on the one evening she was in the country between flying in from America, where she is studying on a water polo scholarship at the University of Michigan, and flying out to Istanbul for the World Cup.

In addition, pupils had the opportunity to learn from Rose Younger, a former Great Britain Water Polo Captain and an important ﬁgure in the development of women’s water polo in the UK. She came into school to referee a ﬁxture, and also found time to give a talk to gifted and talented athletes in the Girls’ Division and Primary Division water polo players, and to deliver a session to the Under 13 boys.

Impressive water polo achievements continued at the start of the spring term when, in January, Year 12 student Amelia played in The Nordic League Cup qualiﬁcation round with Manchester Senior Women’s team. She travelled to Romania and played four matches, winning three and drawing in the last of the set, which then went to penalties. The team qualiﬁed in second place as a result. She has also been invited to a training camp in Tenerife with Great Britain Junior Women, which will take place in early February.

Chapter 6 Year 9s secure trophy in GCHQ Languages Competition

Year 9s secure trophy in GCHQ Languages Competition

The National Language Competition is now in its third year and, once again, a group of promising Year 9 linguists rose admirably to the challenge. The competition is organised by GCHQ, the UK’s intelligence, security and cyber agency, and encourages students to demonstrate their aptitude for learning languages. Pupils were tasked with breaking language codes and solving as many linguistic puzzles as they could using an online platform against the clock in the ﬁve-day challenge. The boys engaged enthusiastically and demonstrated eﬀective teamwork, excellent time management and, above all, astute problem-solving skills in manipulating a range of new and complex languages.

The School’s winning team of Sumedh Joshi, Ewan McCairn, Tejas Neelam and Archie Warren were declared the North West regional winners and as such they secured the School’s ﬁrst trophy in this competition and were awarded engraved coins and certiﬁcates for this impressive achievement. Their result saw them placed in the top 30 of the 2000 teams that entered from 500 schools.

When asked what he thought was the key to the team’s success Ewan McCairn said “winning the regional GCHQ National Language Competition is testament to our team's collaborative eﬀort and focus under pressure.”

Well done to the other boys who took part and showed excellent teamwork and enthusiasm for their language studies: Hassan Chaudhry, Uzair Harris, Saif Karim, Derek Leong, Aleks NeklesaFord, Faaz Sajid and Ethan Singh.

Chapter 7 Year 9s excel in Language Nut Competition

The MFL Department have been promoting the use of Language Nut in lessons to encourage pupils to take responsibility for their own autonomous learning. In GCSE classes, we have also been using the platform Conjuguemos to reinforce key structures and verbs in diﬀerent time frames. Some of our students have gone above and beyond our expectations with outstanding individual success. In order to provide a competitive element, the platform provides incentives such as a leader board and we can compete against other participating schools.

During National Languages week in the Autumn Term all members of the School were asked to log on during form periods to get points for their house. We continued this with an internal Year 9 Language competition earlier in January where all Year 9s were encouraged to complete a range of listening, reading, writing and speaking activities on Language Nut over the course of seven days. Lots of boys took part and the top three not only won certiﬁcates and vouchers, but also came in the top three worldwide for January. The boys were Hassan Chaudhry and Derek Leong for their performance in French and Tejas Neelam for his achievement in Spanish.

Chapter 8 A snapshot of extra-curricular school life

A snapshot of extra-curricular school life

Almost 400 students from 500 schools took part in the annual Physics Olympiad competition. This is a very diﬃcult exam which stretches students beyond the scope of the A Level Course.

Seven students from Bolton School took part in this event and all did very well. The results are:

Ethan Wong Silver

Tristan Hughes Bronze I

Ted Danson Bronze II

Ethan Herring Bronze II

Zak McAlister Bronze II

Nathaniel Waghorn Bronze II

James Wilson Commendation

The Debating team featuring James Wilson and Thomas Melpignano progressed to the ESU Mace Regional Final. They did so by progressing through a very competitive heat, edging out MGS in a very close debate.

In the Art Department, boys were tasked with drawing their most inspirational person in a medium of their choice, from footballers to family members. A wide range of portraits were received. The Art Department is impressed with and want to congratulate the following boys involved in the Inspirational Portraits competition.

Winner: Subhaan Aslam

Runners up: Ziyad Bagasi, Sam Ducker, Rohan O’Riordan, Umar Patel, William White

Honourable mentions: Musa Akram, James Ogg

Thank you to all who supported the Book Fair in the Senior Library last week. We sold over £1,400 worth of books and

earned £774 in rewards, which will be used to buy additions to stock and prizes for pupils.

The following boys have accrued over 20,000 Sparx Reader Points this academic year:

Year 7: David Alalade, Deacon Alexander, Mosope Fasuyi, Zachary Hanif, Yaman Leila, Harlan Moore, Yahya Seedat

Year 8: Daksh Anand, Ehaan Davda, Dawar Hassan, Junaid Jusab, Zaidan Master, Chimdiebube Oraegbunam

Year 9: Ahmed Baree, Mohammed Hussain, Moses Kopicki, Tejas Neelam, James Peters, Archie Warren

The top reader in the Year 10 cohort is Noah Plenderleith

All of these boys received a £10 voucher to celebrate their reading.

There are also currently 142 boys on Gold Reader – this demonstrates an excellent dedication to reading and these boys should be extremely proud of their endeavours.

There is a thriving Manga ECA that is supported by Year 13 student Shabaan Akram. Most notably, the following boys have read an extensive number of manga books:

Nicholas Okiomah – 52 books since joining us last September

Avi Patel – 238 books

All of these boys received a £10 voucher to celebrate their reading.

Over the course of the Autumn Term, a group of pupils in Year 10 have attended training sessions with Mr. Humphreys, enabling them to become Social Switch Champions. The Social Switch program enables pupils to become ambassadors for positive social media usage. Champions were selected based on their ability to be a positive role model, both at School and online, to communicate clearly - both in person and virtually, and a willingness to share their experience of navigating social media challenges. Over the Autumn Term, Social Switch Champions delivered Pastoral Period sessions to pupils in Year 7 –speciﬁcally exploring Identity, Conﬂict and Hate Speech and Online friends.

Our Social Switch Champions are: Mohammedessa Ali, Ben AzizYoung, Yohaan Bhalme, Hal Danson, Bryn Edwards, Wesley Else, Oscar Hatton, Oliver Hickey, Jacob Jones, Vince Parkinson, Alexander Pierson, Noah Plenderleith, William Richardson and Thomas Sibley.

Congratulations to the Junior ‘A’ quiz team of Syed Mehdi, Toby Mullen, Yayha Seedat and Ivan You in Year 7, who were successful in their ﬁrst-round match of the Schools Challenge

Quiz Plate Competition in which they beat St. Colman's College, Newry, to progress to the next round.

Congratulations to the following Year 13 boys on their success in the BM Schools Academic Quiz Challenge. A new competition this year, the quiz saw students from across the UK compete individually against the clock to secure the highest score in a challenging set of general knowledge questions. Bronze awards were awarded to Adam Berisford and Fraser Sackﬁeld, Silver to Ryan Coombes and Anish Patel and Gold to Mark Lintott and Arun Patel. Scoring a Diamond award and tenth overall position in the competition was Adam Faulkner. Hopefully this Sixth Form success will encourage younger boys to enter the Intermediate and Junior competitions later this year.

Congratulations to the Senior ‘B’ quiz team of Adam Berisford and Adam Faulkner in Year 13 and Rith Narla and Kenzie Naylor in Year 11, who were successful in their second round match in the Schools Challenge Quiz Competition in which they beat Hurstpierpont College to progress to the next round.

Congratulations to the following pupils who recently gained the following music qualiﬁcations during this Autumn Term:

Derek Leong 9f

Peter McCreedy 11e

Taran Guduru 8d

Grade 7 Piano Merit

Grade 5 Violin Distinction

Grade 5 Piano Pass

Rith Narla 11e

George Meredith-Alexander 11f

Lucas Ng 11b

George Pickett 9d

Aaron Pierson 7a

Tyler Humphreys 8b

Ayush Wahie 9e

Grade 5 Piano Merit

Grade 5 Violin Merit

Grade 5 Organ Merit

Grade 4 Cello Pass

Grade 3 Violin Merit

Grade 1 Bassoon Distinction

Initial Drum Kit Distinction

Top Commendations:

Year 7 Vedh Bandaru

Year 8 Alex Metcalfe

Year 9 Tejas Neelam

Year 10 Lucas Bishop

Year 11 Zain Burrill 55

Year 12 Nathan Watts 20

Year 13 William Martin 17

Last Monday, our Chess ‘B’ team consisting of Ashton Morrissey, Edward Chu, Dheer Shah, Ryan Chung, Marton Lange and Thomas Humphreys played in the ﬁrst of the knockout rounds of the English Schools Chess Championship. Sadly, they

were knocked out by Lancaster Royal Grammar School. It was a gruelling afternoon for the team, against a higher rated team, which ended in a 4–2 victory for the visitors. Well done to the ‘B’ team for managing a win and two draws against tough opposition.

The Rugby season has continued to be a successful one.

The Under 12 and Under 13s have continued to develop well, with almost 70 boys representing School between the two year groups and both successfully took part in the Lancashire Rugby Festivals at Preston Grasshoppers.

The Under 14s made the Semi-ﬁnal of the Lancashire Cup – the ﬁrst Bolton side to reach that stage for a number of years, but unfortunately lost to a strong Merchant Taylors’ side.

The Under 15s made the Quarter-ﬁnal of the Lancashire Cup, losing to Kirkham GS in a keenly contested game.

The Seniors have had a better second half of the season, picking up wins vs. Audenshaw, Altrincham GS and Bury GS.

We now look forward to the ever enjoyable 7s season, as the weather improves.

Congratulations to Will James, who has been selected to play for the newly created Leigh Leopards academy.

In Water polo, we’ve had lots of friendlies and it has been great to see so many students representing the School.

In terms of major competitions and knockouts, the Under 18s qualified for the National Plate Semi-final after finishing third in their preliminary round group following two victories and two defeats. The Under 15s also qualified for the National Plate Semifinal after finishing third in their preliminary round group, following two victories and two defeats.

Bolton School had a fantastic showing at the Bolton Town Swimming Championships held at the Jason Kenny Centre. The Junior and Intermediate teams both brought home Gold, beating strong opposition from across the borough, securing top spots in their categories with impressive performances throughout. The Senior team also showed great eﬀort, ﬁnishing in a strong second place, just missing out on the top spot. It was a brilliant display of talent and teamwork from all involved.

Well done to the following boys that represented the Bolton Borough at the Greater Manchester Schools Cross Country last weekend: Billy Brindle (7c), Amos Thompson (7a) Sasha Milne (8b), Ethan Blyth (9c) and Aryan Nunkoo (9d)

There were some great runs against top competition in some really challenging conditions!

The Year 7 Hockey Team have just returned from playing in the Tier 1 North West Regional Finals at King’s Macclesﬁeld School. It is a very competitive tournament that sees the best schools in the North West competing to represent the region at the National Finals in March. The boys played extremely well, showcasing their skills, and wearing the School crest with pride.

The House System is buzzing with activity as we prepare for upcoming events. In the lead-up to House Day in March, students are brainstorming exciting House Day activities that will bring everyone together for a fun and memorable experience.

Fundraising eﬀorts have begun across the Houses and donations are also being collected for the local foodbank, with nonperishable food and toiletries being gathered in support of those in need. Additionally, assemblies have focused on important topics like heart health and character traits such as resilience, respect, and responsibility.

Thank you to all the boys in Blackburn House, who have donated essential toiletries and non-perishable food items for Blackburn Foodbank. A special mention to Fin Wyatt, who has donated a large number of items after encouraging his family and family friends to donate!

Chorley House has been busy engaging in assemblies focused on key character traits, with students developing values such as resilience, respect and responsibility.

Manchester House has had assemblies on heart health and has started preparing to raise money to purchase deﬁbrillators for local sports clubs, activities for which will begin in the spring.

Members of Wigan are already getting excited for House Day in March and are coming up with ideas for fundraising activities to support our chosen charity: Bolton Green Umbrella. We shall start raising money, as ever, in the spring.

We are pleased to inform you that a total of £1,800 was raised from the Christmas charitable events which took place in School. These include the Christmas Festival donations, Christmas sock selling and the Sixth Form Christmas Jumper Day. The three charities that have received £600 each are Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary, Emmaus and Fort Alice. We would like to thank everyone for their generosity in supporting these worthy causes.

Credits

Editor: Miss K.S. Wrathmell

Contributors: Miss A. Bradshaw, Miss. A. Wilson, Mr. N.L. Ford, Mr. P.J. Britton, Mr. I.K. Forgrieve, Mr. P.D. Jackson, Mr. M. Johnson, Mr. S. Foy, Mrs. C.A. Brace, Mr. A.C. Robson, Mrs. M. Howarth, Mrs. A. Caller, Mr. M. Ormerod, Ms. J.Z. Sigrist, Mrs. M.A. Ryder, Mr. R. Humphreys, Mr. T. Benbow, Mr. D.F. Teasdale, Mr. L. Watkinson, Mr. P. Costello, Mr. M.G. Chilton